Congress needs serious introspection; CPI must consolidate and expand: D Raja

For Modi and the BJP-RSS, Communism is a dangerous ideology and ultimate challenge to them, Raja said

D Raja was elected as the General Secretary of CPI at the Party Congress in Vijayawada earlier this month. Raja, the first Dalit to assume the chair of General Secretary in any of the Communist parties in India, first assumed the post after S Sudhakar Reddy, who was re-elected in the 2018 Party Congress, decided to hang his boots in 2019 owing to health reasons. Raja spoke to DH’s Shemin Joy on the way ahead for the CPI, plans for Lok Sabha polls and other political issues.

You have been elected as CPI General Secretary in the latest Party Congress. What are the priorities set for the CPI by the Party Congress?

Strengthening of the party, increasing party’s presence in Parliament and Assemblies, defeating the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections and Left unity are among the top priorities. First and foremost priority is the strengthening of our party. We will be having our centenary year of our party in two years. By that time we should be able to increase our membership to at least one million. For this, we need to work at the grassroot level. We should consolidate our position wherever we are and we should expand to other areas. We should also increase our presence in Parliament and state Assemblies. In a Parliamentary democracy, this is also important. Secondly, in the next two years, the country will be witnessing Assembly elections as well as Lok Sabha polls. We should work with other secular and democratic parties. We should try to unite them in order to fight and defeat the BJP. Thirdly, the CPI needs to conduct sustained struggles on basic issues of life and livelihood like education, healthcare, employment, housing, right to food, right to land. These are all basic issues. We should take up these issues at various levels. We should reach out to people. We should mobilise people. Here, we should also appeal to other parties also.

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When it comes to struggles, how do you propose to go ahead?

One has to understand that the basic issues in Indian society are class, caste and patriarchy. We must apply the Marxist-Leninist theory to address these questions. Unless we fight the issues, we cannot take the country forward. Our approach will be to address these questions of class exploitation, economic exploitation, caste discrimination, caste hierarchy, untouchability, question of social justice, social empowerment, women empowerment, equal rights, and representation of women in all walks of lives, including policy making and legislative bodies. These issues need long-term struggles.

You spoke about strengthening the party. What exactly is the party's roadmap for this?

As I said earlier, we will have to work at the grassroot level. We must enroll new members. We should strengthen the functioning of party branches. We should expand from whatever traditional base we have. We need to expand to new areas.

Left unity and unification of Communist movements are a major issue. What is CPI’s position?

We have working relationships with other parties but we should try to strengthen Left unity. As CPI, we are talking about Communist unification on a principled basis. We work together at trade union level, farmers' levels, youth-student, women level. There are united movements. But at the political level, we are working together but the issue at hand is how to take it forward because people look forward to such a development. Narendra Modi considers the Communist ideology as the ultimate enemy. For Modi and the BJP-RSS, Communism is a dangerous ideology and ultimate challenge to them. To face the challenge, we must work towards Communist reunification and left unity.

Also Read | Left-of-Centre stance key for opposition unity against BJP: CPI

What are the bottlenecks in the unification of Communist movement?

It is for every section of the Communist movement to do a serious introspection. We need to ask ourselves why the electoral strength of the Left has declined over the years while the rightwing fascist powers have captured power. In such a situation, unless we put all our efforts together and fight together, we cannot win this battle. That is the need of the hour to defeat fascist forces.

You referred to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. What is your advice to the Opposition?

Congress will have to do serious introspection. It is a new situation, which demands new strategies and new approaches. Congress cannot act the way it did in the past. It will also have to revise many of its policies, particularly economic policies. At least, the Congress will have to revert back the Nehruvian position on economy. Neo-liberal policies have proved to be disasters. It has led to unprecedented inequality. All those global indices, we are at the bottom, though the government may want to dispute it. In the latest Global Hunger Index, India ranks below our neighbours. That is horrific. Congress will also have to fight the BJP on communalism without compromising secularism from the position of Constitution. Even if they do not take left of centre positions, the regional parties should consciously avoid right of centre positions. They should align themselves with progressive forces against communal fascism.

There is a question of who will lead the Opposition. Isn't there a fight for leadership?

Leadership should not be an issue now because all parties have their own experience, maturity. First we should collectively fight and defeat the BJP-RSS, then collectively the leadership question can be addressed. The situation will decide who should be the leader. We have the experience of the United Front in 1996 how we collectively decided who would be the leader. The responsibility is now to collectively fight the BJP to ensure that there is a change of power.

Do you think the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the recent election to Congress president are positive steps?

It is positive. Congress decided to go to people through a yatra. A new leadership has also been elected. It is for the Congress to decide what next. All secular democratic parties should be realistic in their approach, they must be mutually accommodative.

Mallikarjun Kharge is the new Congress president. Do you expect a change?

Kharge is one of the senior leaders in the country with rich experience, including in legislature and Parliament. He is one of the very respected leaders in the country.